Practitioner's Tool / Determining the Design Flow

In this step, you will estimate the volume of wastewater each day that will require treatment (Hydraulic Loading).

There are three methods:

Water Meter Readings: If you know the water meter readings, you can apply a wastewater conversion figure to account for the water consumed from a piped water system that is not converted to wastewater (irrigation).

Apply Values from Standard Tables: The United States Environmental Protection Agency has standard values for wastewater generation from a variety of sources. For modern cities, this may be an approximation. For developing areas, use local knowledge to make informed estimates.

Review Similar Projects: Survey existing projects that will be similar to yours and try to determine if they have water meter readings or any estimate of water consumption you can review. In some cases, more accurate measurements can be made by estimating volume of source water delivery (number of buckets, run time for pumps).